The USA Film Festival, known for its celebration of new and classic films, unveiled the lineup for its 56th edition, taking place April 22 to 26, 2026, in Dallas, Texas.
Opening Night will kick off the festival with “A Salute to Arthur Elgort,” featuring a screening of Warren Elgort’s new documentary Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses. The intimate and visually rich documentary follows filmmaker Warren Elgort as he turns the camera on his father, legendary fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, whose candid, movement-driven style transformed the pages of Vogue and redefined the look of modern fashion photography. Utilizing archival footage, iconic Vogue shoots, and heartfelt interviews with collaborators including Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley and Linda Evangelista. Director/producer Warren Elgort, film subject celebrated fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, and producer Emma Elgort will be in attendance to present the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A.
The festival will feature Renny Harlin’s new disaster thriller Deep Water as its Centerpiece film presentation. Directed by Harlin, written by Pete Bridges and John Kim, the action thriller stars Aaron Eckhart, Sir Ben Kingsley, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Kelly Gale, and Li Wenhan. When a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific, survivors soon discover they’re not alone and must survive the shark-infested waters. Produced by Gene Simmons, the film will be released in theaters by Magenta Light Studios on May 1st. Renny Harlin and Gene Simmons will be in attendance to present the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A.
The Spotlight Screening will be Guy Jacobson’s madcap legal comedy Out Of Order, starring Brandon Routh as a young New York lawyer who ends up working for two opposing law firms, inexplicably representing both sides of the same case. The film also stars Brooke Shields, Sam Huntington, Sandra Bernhard, Luis Guzman and Krysta Rodriguez. Writer/director Guy Jacobson will be in attendance to present the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Closing Night’s lineup will be led by Matthew Thayer’s No Limbs No Limits, with the film’s inspirational subject, Nick Vujicic, presenting the film. Born in Melbourne without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic defied every expectation the world placed on him — surviving childhood depression and a suicide attempt at age eight to eventually reach nearly one billion people with his message of faith and perseverance. Nick Vujicic will be in attendance for this special screening.
Highlights also include a salute to Academy Award®nominee Lesley Ann Warren, with a film-clip compilation covering her on-screen career in conjunction with a presentation of Tom Koch’s short film Olive, Jon Keeyes’ Speed Demon, starring Katie Cassidy, with Keeyes and Cassidy on hand, and a special 75th Anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) with author and film historian Stephen Rebello in attendance with his new book about the film “Criss-Cross: The Making of Hitchcock’s Dazzling, Subversive Masterpiece Strangers on a Train.”
All screenings and events will be held at the Angelika Film Center Dallas (5321 E. Mockingbird Lane), with the majority of the programming offered as free admission as part of the Festival’s community outreach programming.
“We are pleased to once again celebrate Dallas Arts Month with our annual Spring Festival,” USAFF Managing Director Ann Alexander said. “This year’s program celebrates some very independent and inspirational artists, and includes programs ranging from important documentary topics and classic films to pure entertainment fare. We are honored to bring these master artists, mid-career filmmakers, and emerging talents to our stage in Dallas to present their works and speak with our audiences. And, with the support of our wonderful Sponsors, we are once again able to present the majority of this year’s programs as free admission.”
The 2026 USA Film Festival Official Selections
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION
Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses
Director: Warren Elgort
Country: USA
Running Time: 83min
In this intimate and visually rich documentary, filmmaker Warren Elgort turns the camera on his father, legendary fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, whose candid, movement-driven style transformed the pages of Vogue and redefined the look of modern fashion photography. Told through unprecedented archival footage, iconic Vogue shoots, and heartfelt interviews with collaborators like—Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley and Linda Evangelista— the film captures the spontaneity, humor, and genius behind Arthur’s work. As Warren uncovers the man behind the camera, the film becomes both a celebration of a creative legacy and a tender portrait of a father through the eyes of his son.
CENTERPIECE PRESENTATION
Deep Water
Director: Renny Harlin
Country: USA
Running Time: 110min
A flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific. After surviving the crash, the survivors soon discover they’re not alone and they must survive the shark infested waters. Directed by Renny Harlin, written by Pete Bridges and John Kim, the thrilling film stars Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Kelly Gale, and Li Wenhan. Produced by Gene Simmons, Ying Ye, Neal Kingston, Grant Bradley, Dale Bradley, Adrián Guerra, Xavier Parache, Bob Yari.
SPOTLIGHT PRESENTATION
Out Of Order
Director: Guy Jacobson
Country: USA
Running Time: 95min
In an attempt to win back his supermodel ex-girlfriend, a young NY lawyer ends up working at two opposing law firms, representing both sides of the same case. Written and directed by Guy Jacobson, the madcap comedy stars Brandon Routh, Brooke Shields, Sam Huntington, Sandra Bernhard, Luis Guzman and Krysta Rodriguez.
SPECIAL 75TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION
Strangers on a Train (1951) 75th Anniversary Screening
Director: Alfred Hitchock
Country: USA
Running Time: 101min
Alfred Hitchcock directed this classic suspense tale – widely considered one of the master’s best works – tapping into the evil that lies hidden just beneath the surface of each of us. When two strangers – tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger), whose wife will not grant him a divorce, and wealthy but deranged young Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), who wants to be rid of his father – happen to meet on a train from Washington to New York, the conversation casually turns to a possibly perfect crime: what if each committed murder for the other? There is nothing to connect the two men. No apparent motive for either killing. When the trip ends, Guy believes the conversation was hypothetical, and that he will never see Bruno again. Then his wife is murdered… and Bruno returns for payback. Hard-boiled crime novelist Raymond Chandler co-wrote the screenplay of this film adaptation of the novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Olive (Salute to Lesley Ann Warren)
Director: Tom Koch
Country: USA
Running Time: 13min
While caring for his grandmother, Sam begins to question the nature of their relationship.
FEATURED CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION
No Limbs No Limits
Director: Matthew Thayer
Country: USA
Running Time: 91min
When an Australian family is handed a newborn son with no arms and no legs, they face a choice that will either limit them forever — or change the world. No Limbs No Limits is the story of how they chose the world. Born in Melbourne without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic defied every expectation the world placed on him — surviving childhood depression and a suicide attempt at age eight to eventually reach nearly one billion people with a message of radical hope. But the deeper story belongs to his family, who fought Australia’s education system into rethinking disability integration nationwide and chose, daily and imperfectly, to believe their son’s life was limitless. Drawing on extraordinary personal access and rare archival home footage, No Limbs No Limits is the story of what becomes possible when love refuses to accept the verdict.
ADDITIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURES
Birthright
Director: Zoe Pepper
Country: Australia
Running Time: 93min
Evicted and jobless, Cory and his pregnant wife are forced to stay with his parents. As the younger couple’s stay extends the parents’ become worried that their disappointing son will never leave the house. Desperate to prove himself, the edges of Cory’s reality slip away and he finds an unexpected path to success that detonates the family in Zoe Pepper’s darkly twisted tale about a disillusioned generation and their chase for the success of their baby boomer parents.
Do Us Part
Director: Reed Arnold
Country: USA
Running Time: 93min
Rose, Ryan, and Mark were best friends in college, though Rose and Ryan were always almost something more and Mark was always something of a cad. Now, years later, Rose shows up in the hours before Ryan’s wedding to rectify what she considers a mistake of her youth forcing the best man, Mark, still happily non-monogamous himself, to navigate a minefield of secrets both old and new to get his friend to ‘I Do’ before the past blows up the future and the bonds of the trio’s once unshakeable friendship are fully severed.
The Dummy Detective
Director: Rob Margolies
Country: USA
Running Time: 90min
A ventriloquist/detective and his wooden partner are trapped in a creepy inn with eccentric guests, one of whom is a serial killer. An alluring actress, Chloe Lake (Deborah Twiss), is being stalked by a serial killer. She escapes to a creepy, remote inn in upstate New York where the innkeeper is an eccentric British part-time mystery writer (Sean Young). Chloe is joined by detective Van Trillo (Jonathan Geffner), who uses his ventriloquist skills to aid in his investigations. Together with his wooden partner, Sam Suede, Trillo soon finds himself stranded with Chloe in the inn as a torrential storm rages outside and all communication with the outside world is cut off. And one of the odd guests at the inn is apparently the serial killer. As the night progresses, guests at the inn are murdered one by one as Trillo struggles to identify and apprehend the suspect. Will Trillo & Suede catch the elusive culprit before all is lost?
Horseshoe
Directors: Edwin Mullane and Adam O’Keefe
Country: Ireland
Running Time: 88min
All families are mad… not least the Canavans. When Colm, the head of the family, dies there are few who mourn his passing — not even his four estranged adult children. But the legalities of his will must be observed, and more than one Canavan sibling is harboring secrets. As the Canavans return to the family home, the fate of the family unit, their sanity and the Canavan estate all hang in the balance. Blending razor-sharp dialogue with raw emotional depth, the cast delivers powerful performances from Carolyn Bracken, Lalor Roddy, John Connors, Mary Murray, Jed Murray, Neill Fleming, Eric O’Brien and Caroline Harvey.
Speed Demon
Director: Jon Keeyes
Country: USA
Running Time: 93min
When Father Novak (William H. Macy) and Sister Lu (Katie Cassidy) board a train from Montreal to New York City, they aren’t prepared for the danger and evil that would pursue them. After the train is taken over by the demon Asmodeus, Father Novak and Sister Lu must battle possessed passengers on a runaway train with Sister Lu forced to overcome her faltering faith and perform the first exorcism done by a nun.
See You When I See You
Director: Jay Duplass
Country: USA
Running Time: 102min
A truthful and bitingly funny tale of surviving PTSD with a little help from family, loved ones and therapy. Through a compassionate and inventive journey into the human psyche, director Jay Duplass and first-time feature writer Adam Cayton-Holland portray a sense of lived-in authenticity with wisdom, heightened by fantastical renderings of a collection of memories in their intricate adaptation of Cayton-Holland’s 2018 memoir, Tragedy Plus Time. Fiercely original and astutely universal, See You When I See You charts the uneven path of emotional healing from grief and trauma with refreshing honesty, through turns that are dark, humorous, and unexpected.
The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
Directors: Peter Masterson
Country: USA
Running Time: 108min
A richly textured and triumphant tale of an elderly woman’s journey home, The Trip to Bountiful stars Geraldine Page in the performance of a lifetime and a role that won her an Academy Award® for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Funny, adventurous and suspenseful, the film is perfect on just about every level and is a demonstration of the human spirit. Carrie Watts (Page) is an elderly woman with a weak heart, but of strong determination. Trapped in a tiny apartment under the care of her cowardly son and his shrewish wife, Carrie is determined to escape and return to her girlhood home. Seizing her chance and her meager Social Security check, Carrie sets out on an unforgettable quest to make peace with her past — and the secrets of her heart that draw her ever homeward. Peter Masterson directed this endearing and uplifting drama co-starring John Heard and Rebecca De Mornay. Legendary writer Horton Foote wrote the Oscar®-nominated screenplay based on his own play.
Union County
Director: Adam Meeks
Country: USA
Running Time: 97min
Assigned to a county-mandated drug court program, Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) embarks on the tenuous journey toward recovery amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio. Also starring Noah Centineo, Emily Meade and Elise Kibler.
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
Out of Plain Sight
Director: Rosanna Xia
Country: USA
Running Time: 94min
From the Los Angeles Times and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia, the film is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean – and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.
In a Good Place Now: The Life and Music of Bobby Charles
Director: David DuBos
Country: USA
Running Time: 74min
Feature-length documentary about the life and career of Robert Charles Guidry, better known to the. music world as Bobby Charles. Bobby was an enigma in the music world, a brilliant singer/songwriter who never learned to play an instrument and could not read or write music. He went from being a teen pop sensation in the 1950’s to a hippie-on-the-run in Woodstock in the early 70’s, to a performer in the legendary Last Waltz concert to a recluse living out his life in his. hometown of Abbeville, Lousiana. Along the way, he met and befriended legendary music icons such as Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Ray Charles and many, many others as well as writing a long list of now-classic tunes such as “See You Later, Alligator,” “Walking to New Orleans,” “The Jealous Kind,” and “I Don’t Know Why I Love You (But I Do).”
Vanishing: A Love Story
Director: Sandra Luckow
Country: USA
Running Time: 107min
Vanishing: A Love Story is a documentary about award-winning novelist Cai Emmons and her loving, open-hearted journey towards death. In 2021, at the age of 70, Cai was diagnosed with ALS. Taking place in 2022, during the last six-months Cai’s life, the film is, first and foremost, a story about the agency of expression — having a voice to create a legacy in the world.
What We Can Know About Edmond and Basile
Director: Sascha Just
Country: USA
Running Time: 85min
The stars of this documentary are 19th century New Orleans composers Basile Barès and Edmond Dédé. Basile Barès and Edmond Dédé were Creoles of Color in 19th century New Orleans — Dédé a free man, Barès born into enslavement. From the tail end of slavery to racial segregation Barès and Dédé wrote and performed operas and concert popular with black and white audiences. Yet, since their lifetime their compositions have not been performed, and some have never been presented to the public. New Orleans musicians and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra are now resurrecting their long lost compositions — and exploring their connections to jazz. From rehearsals to costume fittings Edmond and Basile documents the path to these premieres and uses the performances as a springboard to a journey into a hidden history.
SHORT FILMS
Narrative Short Films – The Darker Side
TRT: 98min
Jasmine. Home. Mother
Director: Ugnė Skonsmanaitė
Countries: Lithuania/UK/USA
Running Time: 15min
Query
Director: Stewart Hendler
Country: USA
Running Time: 12min
Starring: Anthony Hill
The Pearl Comb
Director: Ali Cook
Country: UK
Running Time: 21min
The Ride
Director: Slava Denisov
Countries: USA
Running Time: 15min
Starring: Ron Perlman
The Seventh Turn
Director: Eric D. Howell
Country: USA
Running Time: 20min
The Spectacle
Director: Bálint Kenyeres
Country: Hungary
Running Time: 17min
Narrative Short Films – The Lighter Side
TRT: 80min
Drop Off
Director: Ric Serena
Country: USA
Running Time: 3min
Fireflies in the Dusk
Director: Jonathan Hammond
Country: USA
Running Time 17min
Rent-a-Fr13nd
Director: Avery Daman
Country: USA
Running Time: 12min
Something Pointless
Director: Asa Bailey
Countries: UK
Running Time: 14min
Starring: Owen Teale, Sophie Thompson and Sule Rimi
The Application
Director: Joey Brooks
Countries: USA
Running Time: 11min
The Carnal Soul
Director: Alexandra Essoe
Country: USA
Running Time: 12min
Starring: Bob Gunton
The Lingering
Director: Gabe Reiss
Country: USA
Running Time: 11min
Texas Short Films (In Competition)
TRT: 99min
A Very Crowded Room
Director: Nate Wilburn
City: San Marcos
Running Time: 5min
El Lloron
Director: Rodrigo Moreno-Fernandez
City: Brownsville
Running Time: 17min
Should We Do It?
Director: Yuqi Sun
City: Austin
Running Time: 11min
Ten West
Director: Shannon Chance
City: Dallas
Running Time: 11min
Tito Ritmo
Director: Ulises Córdova
City: El Paso
Running Time: 15min
Dawn at Dominion
Director: Carl Bailey
City: Celina
Running Time: 40min
Student Short Films (In Competition)
TRT: 111min
91 Times Smash
Director: Yuxin Yang
Country: USA
Running Time: 14min
Ankara 1979
Director: Can Karayalçın
Country: Turkey
Running Time: 20min
Betrayal
Director: Carolyn (Xiange) Liu
Country: China
Running Time: 16min
Old Man’s Child
Director: Gery Riba
Country: Hungary
Running Time: 28min
Nothing but the End
Director: Tanguy Pichon
Countries: Switzerland
Running Time: 15min
VITA 2.0
Director: Vita Stoikova
Country: Ukraine
Running Time: 18min
Reel Owl Cinema Shorts Program
TRT: 60min
(Film Lineup TBA)
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